OP— I would buy as many the things that are pre-prepped as I can, and then focus on really simple meals like stir fries, pasta with sauce, etc. This is a short phase in your parenting life & when the kids get a little older it will all be easier.

Can one of you go in earlier and leave earlier?

We basically prep everything the night before - chop all veggies, get chicken marinating, etc. so the actual cooking/assembling of dinner is only 15-20 minutes. Much fresher than prepping everything over the weekend for the whole week ahead

When do your kids eat? What time do you go to work? Can you go to work earlier so you can get home earlier?

I personally could not eat that late. I guess im lucky to have a job where i can eat at work. I eat around 5 and leave work at 6. DD eats at the sitters house. This is only 2 days a week fyi. In your case j would probably eat a premade sandwich or something in the car a couple of days a week. Can you have leftovers from what the kids eat?

I get home by 5:45 and it takes 20 min to make dinner.
We eat between 6 and 6:30. Dh does kid pickup and I do drop off since I have a 10 min commute.
I prep some proteins over the weekend like roasted chicken or meatballs. But roasted or grilled salmon or pan fried chicken takes 15 min for me and I make 3 dishes at once. Protein, hot veg side or starch and a salad.
Currently one kid but due with another imminently. We will see how it'll change but I'm going to stick to I as much as I can.
Sometimes dinner is breakfast for dinner or soup/chili i made on the weekend.
Dd gets up at 6 so sometimes I marinade or prep some things in the am before dropping her off at 7:30.

20:54 here -- as an example of meals this week we are having:

Monday -- flank steak seared on stovetop with chimichurri sauce (made in small blender while steak cooks) and salad (pre-washed arugula with olive oil and vinegar poured at the table). Add bread for those who want. Older kid hates steak so he will supplement with cheese or yogurt.

Tuesday -- fast-cooking pork and ginger meatballs, which bake in oven for 20 mins. This will be served with gazpacho which I make the night before and chill in fridge, and same arugula salad.

Wednesday -- my work from home day so meal can be a little more elaborate. Italian sausage roasted in oven then sauteed with halved cherry tomatoes and Trader Joes frozen cauliflower gnocchi. Serve with leftover gazpacho or salad.

Thursday -- thin chicken breasts (I buy them pre-sliced thin, an extra dollar per pound but worth it to me to save on food prep) dipped in flour, egg wash, and panko, and shallow-fried on stovetop. Serve with raw broccoli or cucumber.

Friday -- leftovers. Love leftover night. If there aren't enough it's a free-for-all in the fridge -- we can usually turn up hummus, eggs, unused long-keeping veggies like celery or broccoli, or cheese and crackers.

We are both home by 5:30 (after working 9 hours each). We cook dinner and all eat at 6pm together. I have a 10 month old and a 3 year old so I get how busy it is.

When are your kids eating? I think eating together is #2, just after reading together nightly.

We ate a lot of turkey sandwiches after maternity leave ended with our second.

Until a couple months ago I did the cooking the night before. I planned all meals for the week and cooked something after the kids were in bed, to reheat upon coming home. It was exhausting but worth it as I didn't want to do takeout or frozen meals (just not my thing, DH would've been happy with Trader Joes frozen anything). We did do family meals starting when the baby was born, though. We had not regularly done them with the older one and I regret that, so when the second was born (oldest was 3), we started sitting down as a family around 6:30 pm.

A couple months ago I decided to get better about leaving work at 5 on the dot, which -- barring metro issues -- gets me home between 5:45 and 6. So most nights with something quick and I can have dinner on the table by 6:45. It's been really good. It also helps that my kids are now 5 and 2 which is a lot easier.

But the real key is that I am home by 6 and that DH gets home with the kids around 6:30. In my experience little kids can't go to bed past 8 or 8:15, and so working backwards the latest you can serve dinner is 6:30/6:45. If you aren't even getting home until then, it's not going to happen. If it's important to you, you need to shift your work schedule (or DH does). I am lucky that my job (federal attorney, supervisor) is reasonably flexible so long as I get the work done to deadline. So I respond to emails on my way in and out on the metro and I spend from 9:30-5 in the office, take only a very fast lunch, and often do another hour or two of work after the kids are in bed. It's exhausting but worth it to me. And DH does the same only his in-office hours are closer to 9-5, but his commute is longer.

OP exact sameness situation here but first child is older than yours. I cook on the weekend and freeze the food in batches.
Pull out a batch before leaving in the morning to defrost in the fridge. Example - chicken in sauce, beef stew etc. veggies are stumble sautéed that we can make the same night.

I meal plan for the week ahead and grocery shop accordingly.

I tend to make a lot of fairly basic, not always the most super healthiest meals...this week my plan includes one-pot creamy parmesan chicken and rice, Cajun chicken and pasta, beef stroganoff and either shepherd's (cottage) pie or meatloaf with mashed potatoes. There's usually some kind of steamed vegetable involved as well. Other regulars include coconut chicken curry, the famous chicken shawarma, spaghetti and meat sauce, chicken alfredo, pan-fried tilapia, etc.

Watch a knife skills video on Youtube and learn how to chop fast to cut prep time. (Ha.)

All of my meals stretch--they feed all four of us for dinner and at least two lunches the net day.

I cook a couple meals on Sunday, usually the ones involving more prep.

I also negotiated shorter office hours into my job so 45-min commute + daycare pickups put me home between 5:30-6. We eat by around 6:30. Then bath and bedtime. Then I put in a couple more hours of work to make up for my shorter office hours.

Easy meals. Prep what you can on Sunday and just reheat or do a quick omelette or salad.

Trader Joe’s has some delicious premade foods too.

Any wiggle room with getting home earlier? DH and I get home pretty early and are able to spend 15 min getting together a quick meal- either something prepped on the weekend or morning and something quick. If schedules are not flexible then prep at night or weekends or morning. Or crockpot.

I recently went back to work after having baby #2 and we are having a really hard time figuring out how to cook dinner and eat at a reasonable time.

Right now DH and I both get home from work around 6:45pm, spend 20 mins with our boys, and then divide and conquer bedtime routines. The baby is put down first (bottle, book, song) and is in bed around 7:30-7:45pm. The other parent starts bedtime for the older one at 7:30pm, and then the one putting the baby to bed does tick in and kiss for the older one. So basically we are busy until 8pm, at which time we can start prepping and cooking. Best case scenario we eat at 8:30pm, but it’s usually closer to 8:45pm. Not cooking anything complex but I still have to prep and cook which takes time.

So what is the secret to getting food on the table much faster? Prep all on a Sunday? Unfortunately there isn’t time to do much in the mornings as of now - they are pretty hectic since my DH has to leave early and it’s usually me plus two kids until our nanny comes and I leave.

Am I crazy to think that most people eat much earlier?